Rodriguez Response

Richard Rodriguez has different kinds of tensions in his essay. He is often troubled in one-way or another. Ever since a young boy at home or in school has Rodriguez felt some type of tension that he thought he had figured out; but in reality he truly never did until his last year in graduate school when he was writing a dissertation in England. The first tension I noticed was between him and his parents. At first, Rodriguez was not too thrilled about taking a remedial English class that his parents put him in the second grade. For example Richard would always go up to his parents and say, “my teacher told us”. Rodriguez actually started to love reading as soon as he started the class. Eventually he started to read almost all day. His love for acquiring more knowledge forced him to push his parents away. All Rodriguez wanted to be when he was older was a scholar like one of his teachers. He was embarrassed when his parents talked to one of his teachers after Rodriguez won an academic medal. He didn’t even realize that all this studying and reading turned him into a stranger to the people he loved most in life. It is not his parent’s fault that they grew up in a totally different environment when they were young, before Richard’s time. They are obviously not going to be as educated when your father drops out of school at age eight and has to start working to take care of himself. It’s not his mother’s fault that she grew up in Mexico and doesn’t know how to speak proper English. Richard eventually will realize that his parents are intelligent, hard working people. He learned when he was older to take pride in his parents who just wanted the best for him. Another tension I thought that Richard was facing was in him. Richard was always the typical “teachers pet” in school; always annoying other students because he was always raising his hand and knew every answer to questions, even in college. Richard eventually started to feel alone. While he was in his last year of graduate school, Richard realized that his thirst